I woke up and read InsideHigherEd and instead of a field of poppies, blood red in the morning sun, I saw a field of thousands of crucified bunnies.

“Despite Brown’s proven capacity for doing the impossible, as for example starting a magazine about mercenaries, he has a boundless talent for mismanagement.”

Life With Bob: A Sordid But Instructive Interval At Soldier of Fortune Magazine, March 1984.

This is such a good line. I read it and re-read it, thinking about all the college presidents, provosts, and vice presidents, I have known for which it is an apt description. If you doubt me, just look at recent editions of InsideHigherEd or the Chronicle, especially if you include mismanagement of self and the spoken word. It has not been pretty.

This would be a good time for the literature professors of Mount St. Mary’s U. (I really don’t want to call it a university at this point) to require students to read Watership Down by Richard Adams. It is a story of brave rabbits and rabbits that aren’t so brave (and thus die). And a rabbit, General Woundwort, who is not very nice, but has a clear vision.